Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani plans to unveil several top-level hires for his administration this week, potentially including his pick for City Hall budget chief, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Dean Fuleihan, Mamdani’s incoming first deputy mayor, revealed during a Monday forum hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission that more appointments are expected to be rolled out later this week. Fuleihan didn’t specify which posts appointments will be announced for or say how many are expected.
But two sources with knowledge of the matter told the Daily News that Mamdani is likely to as early as this week tap Sherif Soliman, a seasoned city government veteran, as his director of the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget.
Soliman held a number of prominent posts in ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, including Department of Finance commissioner. He then served as chief policy officer under Mayor Adams before resigning in fall 2023 to become the City University of New York’s chief financial officer, a job he still has.
Besides OMB director, Mamdani has yet to announce picks for schools chancellor and other top-ranking roles in city government, including most deputy mayors.
The last appointment he made was on Nov. 19, when he announced Jessica Tisch had accepted his offer to remain NYPD commissioner. That came just over a week after Mamdani selected Fuleihan as his first deputy mayor and Elle Bisgaard-Church as his chief of staff, his only other two top hires so far.
Though the Mamdani’s transition is approaching a month without personnel announcements, Fuleihan disputed Monday the idea that the mayor-elect’s team has hit a snag.
“We are not behind,” he said at the Citizens Budget Commission gathering.
Comparatively, at this point in 2021 after his election, Adams had made just two top appointments, naming David Banks his schools chancellor on Dec. 9 and Keechant Sewell his police commissioner on Dec. 15.
A spokeswoman for Mamdani, who’s being sworn in as mayor Jan. 1, declined to comment on Soliman’s potential appointment. Soliman, who was reported last month by Politico as a “top contender” for the OMB gig, didn’t immediately return a request for comment Monday.
The OMB director is one of the most powerful officials in City Hall when it comes to budgetary issues.
The director serves as the mayor’s top negotiator in talks with the City Council about the local government’s annual budget. The director can also exercise significant say over hiring processes at city agencies.
One of the first tests for Mamdani is the preliminary budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year he will need to release by the end of January, a blueprint that kick-starts negotiations with the Council. The OMB director is key in developing preliminary budget proposals.
Adams’ OMB director, Jacques Jiha, has drawn outrage from Council members for being the face of the mayor’s so-called “Program to Eliminate the Gap” efforts that resulted in budget cuts to agencies like the city’s public libraries.
With Josephine Stratman
